It looked like business as usual in an opening round matchup of a Conference champion against a fourth seed from the other side, but they play tournaments for a reason. The fourth-seeded Riverton Raiders out of the Western American Legion A Conference, upended the East champion Casper Drillers 8-5, scoring all eight runs in an epic rotation in the top of the fourth inning.
Riverton trailed 4-0 after the opening inning, but Lee Maestas recovered from other trouble with Casper batters to pitch a solid game, yielding just six hits and striking out eight.
The Raiders used seven singles and three walks to generate those eight fourth-inning runs.
Colter Heikkila started the fireworks with a single to left, followed by a Brayden Baker line drive to right. Heikkila came home on a passed ball, and Ryan Cox reached first on a walk. Addison Trujillo ripped a line drive to center field that scored Bake,r and the Raiders trailed just 4-2.
Designated hitter Paxton Yeates singled on a hard grounder to shortstop that scored Cox.
A Brayden Martin single to center knotted the game at 4-4 when Trujillo scored.
Riverton kept rolling.
Jameson Spradlin ripped a ball to shortstop, then beat the throw for a single that scored Yeates, and the Raiders were in the lead 5-4.
Casper’s pitching was shaky, despite sending in a relief pitcher. Heikkila came up for the second time in the inning with the bases loaded. Spradlin at first, Martin on second and Dane Cox on third. Cox scored on the walk after Heikkila cooly held off on a 3-1 count to advance to first.
Baker hit his second single of the inning, this time driving in Spradlin and Martin for an 8-4 Riverton lead.
Casper scored a run in the bottom of the fourth but that was it, and Riverton’s defense held on for the 8-5 win.
It’s a pair of all-West matchups in the semi-finals after an opening day sweep of the East Conference.
Riverton faces Powell in a 4 pm semi-final on Friday.
The West thoroughly dominated the East with Lovell beating Wheatland 10-8, Powell handling Torrington 8-4 and Cody taking care of Sheridan 7-4
RIVERTON 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 – 8 11 2
CASPER 4 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 – 5 6 1
Riverton Raiders – Jameson Spradlin 1-4 S, Colter Heikkila 1-3 S, Beau Anderson 1-4 S, Brayden Baker 3-4 3S, Ryan Cox 0-2, Addison Trujillo 2-4, Lee Maestas 0-0, Paxton Yeates 2-4, Dane Cox 0-3, Brayden Martin 1-3. Totals 11-31
Casper Drillers – Ethan Miramontes 1-4 S, Hunter Schauss 0-4, Jace Lijewski 1-3 S, Brewer Skinner 1-3 2B, Logan Atnip 1-2 HR, Koltyn Pownell 1-3 S, Braeden Reid 1-3 S, Cooper Rogers 0-3, Quade Siemens 0-3. Totals 6-28
WP: Lee Maestas (6) 6H, 8K, 1BB, Beau Anderson (1) 0H, 1K, 0BB
LP: Caden Kalinowski (3.1) 7H, 3K, 2BB, James Gleason (.1) 2H, 0K, 1BB, Josh Moore (2.1) 2H, 2K, 0BB, Merik Hobson (1) 0H, 3K, 1BB